Analyst: Tensions in US-Russia relations affect Karabakh

ArmInfo.Tensions between the US and Russia significantly affect the Karabakh settlement process, the leader of the Constructive Party of Armenia, analyst Andrias  Ghukasyan, expressed such an opinion ArmInfo.

Since 1992, the OSCE Minsk Group, represented by the co-chairs from  Russia, the United States and France, has been involved in resolving  the Karabakh conflict. Since the signing of the trilateral agreement  on the establishment of a truce between the parties to the Karabakh  conflict, almost a quarter of a century has passed. And all these  years, surges of murders on the Line of Contact have been  interspersed with negotiations towards peace. However, since the end  of last year, the killings have practically stopped, and the OSCE MG  mediators, Baku and Yerevan, have started talking about the need to  prepare the parties to the conflict for peace.

"In my opinion, the significant changes in the relations between the  two superpowers are the main feature of the current stage of  settlement. From the previously existing mutual understanding on  certain issues, Washington and Moscow returned to the Cold War  period. This is extremely urgent, since today's withdrawal of the  parties from Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty signed in  1987- is a step towards regular review of the legal framework of  documents signed within the framework of the OSCE ", he stressed.

At the same time, the analyst states that there are certain changes  in the situation around Karabakh.  Yerevan and Baku still disagree  with the settlement options proposed by the mediators from the OSCE  Minsk Group. However, if earlier proposals on the implementation of  measures to achieve a final peace, for quite a long time were  rejected by Azerbaijan, today Yerevan is taking on this role.

"Only the legitimacy of the incumbent Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol  Pashinyan allows him to boldly refuse to the mediators from the Minsk  Group on part of the proposals that are not based on the interests of  the two Armenian republics. Meanwhile, his predecessor Serzh Sargsyan  did not possess this legitimacy, which was expressed in the softer  position of Armenian negotiators on Karabakh. Thus, the preservation  of the status quo is now the prerogative of Pashinyan, not Aliyev, "  Ghukasyan summed up.

Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and  Elmar Mammadyarov met 5 times in less than a year. At the same time,  coming to power, the new Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan  managed to meet with Ilham Aliyev three times, moreover, all three  meetings were unofficial.